A Life on Pittwater

Author: Susan Duncan
Publisher: Ebury Illustrated
Price: $59.95 (hardback)

It is said that places find you – but only when the time is right

In the early 1980’s Susan Duncan left a busy life as journalist in New York to return to Australia. One fortuitous weekend Duncan and a group of her friends visited Pittwater a lazy coastal town only 45 minutes from Sydney’s CBD. As a journo in her early 30’s enjoying the life in Sydney working for a daily, Duncan didn’t really pay much attention to where she was going that weekend. She was only focused on eating good food and sleeping in. A decade later recently widowed she found herself back in Pittwater for a friend’s birthday and it was only then she became aware of her heart telling her that this was where she belonged.

A Life on Pittwater tells the story of this little coastal town through Duncan’s beautifully crafted words and breathtaking photographs by Anthony Ong. The first few pages captivate and it isn’t long before you wish that you could step inside the pages and try on this life to see how it fits.

Pittwater was once home to convicts, rum smugglers, madams, loggers and farmers – today the residents are a bit less racy living there to escape an unnecessarily complicated life on the mainland rather than dodge the law.

There onshore life becomes a hazy memory while the reality of the offshore life flows languidly along.

A sense of community underpins every chapter of this stunning book – whether Duncan is discussing the history, the yachts, the artists, the bush, the boatsheds, or the annual Christmas Eve dog race. Without the strong bond that ties everyone together you have to wonder how life in Pittwater would work. The residents care about each other in a way that perhaps modern society has lost sight of, instead choosing to question people’s rare good intentions as sinister and disingenuous.

At almost any time of day and sometimes late in the evening you can find a kindred spirit for a chat and a catch up.

How could there possibly be a down side to this idyllic, carefree existence. Duncan can name only two. The first being the complications involved in living somewhere only accessible by boat and secondly, the car park for offshore residents on long weekends and public holidays a tribulation every person can relate to.

Tempers normally sunny, fray and occasionally shatter if the day is sweltering. The chicken is going off, the ice-cream is melting and there is not a single damn spot left in the car park.

This book is a rare find. Duncan’s writing style mirrors her life in Pittwater – rich but uncomplicated. She steers the reader through the story with her perfectly placed sentences and deftly avoids the common trip hazard of self indulgent words and phrases. Spending time in her beloved Pittwater through the pages of this book is an absolute pleasure and it is with a certain sadness that after only a few short hours of reading the end arrives.

There is not a single day that I do not say a silent thank you for the privilege of living here. Each day feels like a gift. Perhaps because it is.